In this project I analyzed the problems of a personal cloud storage service business. Based on the insights from the analysis, I suggested a new strategy and goal for the service to improve its business.
Application
Naver Cloud Service
Naver Cloud Service
Role
Lead UX Designer
Lead UX Designer
Contribution
Market analysis, Service strategy, UX/UI concept
Market analysis, Service strategy, UX/UI concept
Problem
Despite the high cost of providing the service, the Naver Cloud was not in leading position in market, or creating value with user data
Analysis
I planned and conducted a service quality analysis and interviews with persons who were already working to provide the service, to figure out the cause underneath the problem.
Solution
I suggested three activities to improve situations: research on competitor’s strategy to get insights about our strategy, defining clear goal of service strategy to ensure consistency of actions, and designing UX/UI guidelines to reduce design cost.
Step 1
Problem: High Cost, Stagnant Market Share
Naver Cloud is Naver's personal storage service for people who want to keep their personal content in cloud storage. Users mainly store photos and videos, but also multiple types of digital contents including documents, music, etc. The number of Naver Cloud users in the Korea market is currently stagnant, while competitors' market shares are growing fast. Meanwhile, the cost of providing the service was bigger than the profit, so the business was challenged to improve by its business committee.
Step 2
Diagnosis: No Service Strategy, Low Service Quality
I looked into Naver Cloud service channels and found out which aspects can not compete with other services. From the interviews with stakeholders, I discovered the cause was the absence of a service strategy, a system of service goal and related action items.
Step 3
Solutions: Three Actions
I suggested a 3-step plan to improve the quality and performance of our cloud service.
1. Competitor Analysis
Of course, Naver Cloud's provider was already aware of competitors in the personal cloud and photo storage service market. However, the provider had not attempted to analyze its competitors' primary goals and strategies. Therefore, I suggested that we analyze the competitors' action to learn their strategies before we established our own.
2. Defining KPI
There was no clear statement or agreement about the Key-Performance Index (KPI) of the service. The opinion varied among chiefs, designers, and operators: They couldn't decide whether it should be based on the number of users, the revenues, the amount of user data, or different criteria. Having a clear KPI was critical because setting a clear vision of the service is essential to establish strategy and correlated action items. So, during discussions with all stakeholders, we defined the KPI as it related to our service at the time.
3. UX/UI Guide Design
The application's UX/UI structure had no consistency, resulting visual inconsistency and a negative user experience. To address this, I recommended establishing the UX/UI guides for the service and using them to reorganize system.
Result
Redesigning Cloud Service
We've designed new service features to achieve our strategic goal for our cloud service, and also a new UX/UI concept for the cloud app.
New Application Concept Design
Below is the concept for the new Naver Cloud app and based on the insights and suggestions from the previous activities. The app is now under development.
All the materials used in this article are designed by me and based on the project outcomes. The contents and opinions do not represent those of Naver corporation.